Blue Point looks to double up at Royal Ascot meet
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Closing day at Royal Ascot could be a big day for Godolphin.
The global racing and breeding powerhouse starts favored Blue Point in the featured Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, while Masar runs in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes, his first race since winning the 2018 Epsom Derby. Charlie Appleby trains both horses.
Blue Point seeks to become the first horse since Choisir in 2003 to pull off the King’s Stand-Diamond Jubilee double. The two straight-course sprints are run on the first and last racing programs of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting – the King’s Stand over about five furlongs and the Diamond Jubilee over about six furlongs. Blue Point, who won the King’s Stand for the second year in a row Tuesday, performs at a similarly high class over both distances and loves the Ascot course, where he now has four wins and a third-place finish from five starts.
Appleby said the option always was left open for Blue Point to participate in both races this week, and when the horse looked sufficiently energetic Wednesday and Thursday after beating old rival Battaash in Tuesday’s start, the decision was made to give Blue Point a second chance this week. Blue Point is to be retired at season’s end, and, as his trainer pointed out, is running out of chances to race on his favorite course.
Perhaps more concerning than the quick turnaround is the chance of rain-sodden ground. The Ascot course was listed as mainly soft on Thursday, and Blue Point won the King’s Stand while the going still was good. Blue Point has always thrived when he can stay on top of a turf course rather than sinking down into it, and his connections are hoping that the forecasted late-week drying comes to pass.
Lying in wait for Blue Point is 4-year-old Invincible Army, who, if not Blue Point’s equal on form, is the fresher horse having awaited this race since winning the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes on May 15. Invincible Army won’t mind some cut in the ground, has emerged as a six-furlong specialist, and was a course-and-distance winner in May 2018.
The Wesley Ward-trained Bound for Nowhere is set to make his third Ascot appearance following a fourth-place finish in the six-furlong Commonwealth Stakes in 2017 and a solid third in this race a year ago. Bound For Nowhere won well over a soft Keeneland course in April 2018 but, like Blue Point, probably would be better off with considerable drying before Saturday’s start.
Masar, meanwhile, finally is ready to get back to action following setbacks that have kept him out of action since June 2, 2018, when he won the Derby at Epsom by 1 1/2 lengths. Masar could easily need a race to shake off rust and runs smack into a very substantive renewal of the Hardwicke, which drew Southern France, Mirage Dancer, Dafoe, Lah Ti Dar, and Salouen, all of whom either have raced competitively at the Group 1 level or suggested that sort of performance lies within their scope.
The card begins at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, with the Chesham Stakes for 2-year-olds. Then comes the Group 3 Jersey Stakes, the Hardwicke, the Diamond Jubilee, the 31-runner Wokingham Handicap, and finally a Class 2 conditions race to bring the curtain down on the 2019 Royal Ascot meeting.
